Blame it on the mistletoe
by Hawaianangelgirl
Summary: What happened after Booth gave Brennan her gift? My try... one more fic after Santa in the Slush. My first Bones piece of fanfic. Dedicated to my sister Deyse, who was the one to get me hooked up in the show! Got the title from Kenny Roger's song.
1. Chapter 1

**Bones 3.09**

**The Santa in the Slush (extra)**

It was almost 10 pm by the time she finally left Washington DC Federal Prison and walked to the lighten Christmas tree that still stood in the middle of the parking lot. There was a small smile playing in her lips that just refused to go. It was snowing but she didn't notice, her eyes fixed only in the tree and in the man standing at its side.

"Thank you… one more time…" she said when she finally reached her partner. "You shouldn't have done this…" she said reaching to touch lightly one of the decorations hanging from the tree. She had the same expression that her step-nieces when they first saw the tree.

"Did you like your present, Bones?" Parker asked standing by his father's side. When had he started to call her the same way his dad did? She smiled at the boy, knowing that there would be only two people in the world she would allow her to call her like that.

"I loved it, Parker! It's been the best Christmas surprise I've had in many years!" She said honestly, kneeling to be at the boy's level. He surprised her by hugging her tightly and kissing her cheek. It was a strange feeling for her, but she returned the kid's hug just as tightly.

"Do you believe in the magic of Christmas now?" Booth asked teasingly, his eyes bright with emotion when he met his partner's blue pools.

Her smile grew again. "Yeah… I do, Booth… Thanks to you…"

There it was again. The silence growing between them, words unspoken that were replaced by the dialogue of their eyes… the feeling of being totally comfortable in those moments where the world around them seemed to disappear. And yet, this time that silence seemed so different, so much more meaningful… Brennan was standing so close to Booth that he had her in an arm reach. He so wanted to touch her. The kiss they had shared the previous days was still as fresh in his mind as it was in his mouth.

Gathering all his courage, he reached to cup her cheek, fearing that she might just reject him, but instead he could notice the little intake and the way her eyes widened a little when he touched her. She never stepped back; in fact, she leaned a little against his palm.

"We are not leaving the tree here, dad, are we?" Parker's little voice broke their moment, and made Brennan lower her face to get it free from Booth's hand. The agent sighed. As much as he loved his son, his timing couldn't have been worse.

"Of course, we are not! Why don't we take it to Bones' house, huh?" he proposed trying to sound natural.

"Yes!" Parker exclaimed. "I get to decorate three trees this year!"

Booth saw his son running to the SUV and he turned to see his partner. "Let's go, Bones?" he said offering his hand to her.

Her eyes were bright with tears. "Yeah…" she managed to murmur taking his hand and never looking away.

"Okay, here we go…" Booth said when he finally entered Bones' apartment carrying the heavy tree.

"Here… Put it here…" she instructed just as she pushed a lateral coffee table away. She and Parker had carried upstairs the bags with the decorations that had been removed so they wouldn't brake.

"Let's decorate it again!" Parker was over excited with the idea of the two trees, this one and the one in his father's house. Temperance Brennan was amazed by the boy's energy, and because it reminded her of her own childhood. It had been years since the smell of a pine tree had invaded her home.

"It looks so beautiful…" she couldn't help but exclaim when they were done with the tree and all the other decorations the two had picked for her. Booth had suggested turning off the lights so the tree would shine with all its miniature lights. Standing by the side of his partner, the agent saw how her baby blue eyes filled with tears once again.

"It certainly does…" he murmured while he tenderly wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a friendly hug, like he had done other times she needed some comfort but would be too proud to ask for it. "You'll get to remember this Christmas Eve for a few days, while the tree is still green…"

Temperance turned slowly to see her partner's profile. "I will remember it for a lot more than a few days, Booth…" she said so honestly that it made his heart skip a beat.

"I'm glad, Bones…" he said matching her low voice. He stayed there, admiring her features for a few seconds until he knew he couldn't stand it more.

"We should get going…" he said as he turned to see Parker, who was still embedded with the sparkling lights.

"Oh…" Bones exclaimed unconsciously, her heart suddenly too heavy by the fact that she would spend the rest of Christmas Eve alone.

"It's quite late…" Booth tried to explain. "And I will have to take Parker to his mom tomorrow so they can go to Vermont…"

"Ok, I understand…" Brennan said, but truth to be told, she didn't want them to go.

"Come on, buddy, say Merry Christmas to Bones again…" he urged his son, who did as requested even if his little face showed how disappointed he was.

"Merry Christmas, Bones…" the boy said as he extended his arms to hug the scientist again.

"Merry Christmas, Parker…" she repeated, kneeling to hug the boy tightly. "Thank you very, very much!"

"Merry Christmas, Bones…" Booth murmured when she turned to face him. Her face didn't show her deception, but her eyes were suddenly sad. They had lost the spark the agent had picked in them when they first lit the tree. It made him feel somehow guilty.

"Merry Christmas, Booth… Thank you… again…" she said shyly, and in a swift movement reached to kiss him on the cheek. "This was the best Christmas I've had in many years…"

Booth couldn't say anything. The slightest touch from her had always had the ability to steal all his rational thoughts, and after the kiss they had shared in her office, it seemed to affect him now more than ever. He only managed to nod and murmur something that sounded like a "yeah…"

He was going to head to the door when his son's voice made him freeze in his place. "Dad, don't move!" Parker shouted excitedly.

"What…?" Booth was going to ask, but then Parker interrupted.

"You two are standing under the mistletoe! You have to kiss!" the boy exclaimed obviously amused. He was covering his mouth with his little hands, trying to stifle his laughter.

Both, Booth and Temperance felt the floor disappearing under their very feet. The agent looked up to the hanging branch he himself had put in there and almost cursed it. Bones was looking to the other side, trying to hide her reddened cheeks. Two days before she had been the one preparing everything to kiss her partner under the mistletoe, telling herself it would change nothing, it would mean nothing, it would be like kissing her brother...

Truth was that it had meant a lot to her (she had flatly lied to their therapist when she had said the kiss had meant nothing and that it was not the cause of her crisis), and definitely it had not been like kissing Russ. The moment Seeley's lips had touched hers, the moment he had responded to her kiss with the same intensity she had kissed him, all the "nothings" had turned into "everythings": that kiss had changed everything between them as much as she tried to deny it. As much as she wanted to feel again everything she had felt with the kiss, she was not prepared to repeat it so soon. She was not prepared to repeat it ever!

"Parker, I…" Bones babbled.

"It's tradition!" the boy argued with the same "deny-me-nothing" expression his father had. Arms crossed, legs slightly opened, Parker seemed to be daring them to move away.

The FBI agent couldn't also believe what his own son was doing to him. Didn't Parker realize that he wouldn't be able to stop himself if he kissed his partner again? Obviously, not. Back in the hospital, when she had kissed him on the cheek a few weeks ago, his breath had caught in his throat just as his heart started a crazy race to the ceiling; when she had arranged all the mistletoe thing to please Caroline and get the trailer for her family, confessing him what she was about to do in a few minutes, he knew he was lost for good. The sweetness of her mouth had broken all his restrains and he had given himself in to that first kiss like he had never done with any woman before.

And yet, he was so willing to repeat the experience again.

Looking at Parker, he knew the boy wouldn't surrender so easily, so he decided to play his cards. If he was correct, Bones was just hiding behind the "sexless kiss" thing…

"Parker…" Temperance tried to talk to the boy again, but his face was so determined.

"Oh, come on, Bones… It's tradition!" Booth joined his son's side much to his partner surprise. "What? You get to kiss me under the mistletoe, but I don't get to kiss you back? Not fair…" he said and moved closer to her, his eyes moving from her eyes to her rosy lips.

"Booth…" she managed to murmur when she felt his hand delving into her hair to rest behind her neck. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think anymore. Her hands moved to his chest on their own will as soon as she felt his other arm circling her waist.

And then it was all. He pressed his mouth against hers and all common sense evaporated. She responded immediately, opening her mouth to grant him complete access, thankful as she was that he was holding her against him or her legs would melt like jelly over a hot surface. If the five seconds Caroline had demanded had turned into twenty, this time they just lost any count of minutes, the whole world around them totally forgotten, Parker included. They broke for air a couple of times, just to go back to the kiss right immediately.

Only the distant sound of an excited laughter finally made them come back to their senses. "Parker…" Booth murmured when they finally broke. The agent didn't want to turn to face his son.

"There's magic in Christmas, dad. You told me so!" he said, clearly amused.

"Ok, buddy, enough. Grab your things and let's go…" Booth said feeling like a coward for running away of the situation like this. "I… hum… I'll see you the day after tomorrow, Bones…" Only then he looked at her in the eye again, and her face surprised him totally: her eyes were not sad anymore, they were shining with a new light that he hadn't seen in them. They seemed a deeper shade of blue and a small smile kept on playing in her lips.

"Why don't you stay for dinner, Booth?" she suddenly suggested, something inside of her rebelling to the idea of having Christmas dinner all alone. "It won't be turkey, but I can make something good…"

"Mac and cheese, Bones?" Parker asked. "I love Mac and cheese!"

Bones looked at the boy and then meet his father's eyes. "Mac and cheese will be…" she said in a low voice never breaking the eye contact. "It's my specialty…"

Booth reached to take her hand and kissed the back lightly but lovingly. "Merry Christmas, Bones…" he murmured, once again his eyes telling her all his words were not.

She felt as if her heart was about to explode. In years, she had never felt so loved in one day. Normally, Christmas season was a sad one for her, it reminded her of the time when she had lost her family. Now she had her father and her brother back, she had an almost sister in law and two step nieces she liked a lot, and most important, she had Parker and she had Booth. She would always have Booth. He was right that day when he had told her there was more than one kind of family.

"Merry Christmas, Booth…" she said, her eyes telling him a lot more. "Thank you… for being you".


	2. Chapter II

Okay, guys, I was so flattered with your reviews and your adding me as favorite author or story, that I felt the best thing I could do was to agree with your requests and continue this story.

I'll try to finish it in the holidays, just to make it match with the story.

I hope you like it!! Merry Christmas!!!

PD. Thanks for the info about Caroline's last name!! (I wasn't sure but then I forgot to check it out! ;-) )

**Blame it on the mistletoe ****part II)**

**Chapter I****I**

"Emma, please open the door!" A voice said from inside just a second before an 8 year old blond girl opened the door of the little apartment. "Hey, auntie Tempe!" she greeted the woman standing by the door. "Mom, it's auntie Tempe!"

Bones was a little nervous when her almost sister in law came to the door and greeted her. "Temperance, what a surprise!"

"Hi, Amy… I… hum… I came to bring the girls some presents Santa dropped by my house…" she explained, looking obviously insecure. After the special Christmas dinner she had shared with Booth and Parker the previous night, she had woken up feeling so content that she didn't feel like spending all day long alone in her apartment, but also (and it quite surprised her) she didn't feel like going to the Jeffersonian and work as if it was any other day. For the first time in 16 years, she had felt part of a family and now she needed to be close to her family again in such a day.

"Come in, Temperance, please! The girls actually were opening the presents Santa left here, and they found one for you! I was going to start breakfast… Have you had breakfast already?" the blond woman said happily as she conducted the scientist inside the apartment. It was small and not elegant as hers, but clean and cozy. Over all, it was warm and was totally decorated with Christmas motives.

"No, I haven't… I often skip breakfast when I'm at work…" she said, and was about to add "unless Booth goes to remind me about it".

"Not good! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!" Amy told her and it made Bones smile slightly: she sounded just like her partner. "Come on, go with Halley and Emma to open your presents and I'll call you when I'm ready!"

"Come on, Auntie Tempe! Look! Santa left something for you here!" Halley called her and it marveled Temperance how good the little girl was doing when a couple of months before she was about to die.

"Open it! Hurry!"

Bones just broke the paper covering the big box that had been marked with her name, and revealed its contents: a full set of blue hand-knitted hat, scarf and gloves that seemed to be very warm, and a wooden photo frame with a picture of Russ and the girls in a previous winter, judging by the snowman that was behind them. Temperance felt a knot forming in her throat: the feeling of getting her family back little by little was still overwhelming.

"I thought you'd like to have a picture of your brother and your nieces…" Amy said from the door of the kitchen. She saw tears shinning in Temperance's eyes.

"It's beautiful, thank you, Amy…" she replied with so much honesty that the blond woman was very moved.

Temperance and the girls shared some more minutes opening presents while breakfast was ready. She had bought the girls some nice jackets and other useful things, but also she had felt festive enough to go to the toy store and buy something both for them and for Parker too. When the boy had opened his present the previous night, he had been thrilled.

"You shouldn't have bothered, Temperance…" Amy told the scientist after breakfast, when the girls had gone back to the toys and the new presents and they were still drinking their coffees. "What you had done already, with Halley when she was sick and then arranging the trailer for us to see Russ and your dad yesterday… that was enough…"

"Oh, no, Amy! It was my pleasure!" Bones replied.

"How did you get the trailer anyway?" Amy asked innocently, though she knew there was quite a story behind the trailer judging by the way Temperance blushed at the mere mention of it.

"Hum… Booth told me I could ask for it… and I talked to Caroline Julian, the Federal Prosecutor…"

"The one who is accusing your father actually helped you to get a trailer to spend Christmas with him? I can't believe it!" Amy said. "And she agreed just like that? That must've been her probono case of the year!" Temperance was shaking her head before she realized. "No? What do you mean no? What did she ask you to do?"

"What?" Temperance asked when she realized her unconscious mind had betrayed her.

"You said no. Did Caroline ask you to do something in exchange of her asking for the trailer?"

Temperance looked at Amy straight in the eye and knew she couldn't keep silence any longer. She needed to talk about it to someone, the events of the previous night had been just too much for her to handle them alone. Normally she would have talked to Angela, but she hadn't called her knowing this was the first Christmas her best friend was spending with her "almost-husband" and she didn't want to interrupt. "She asked me to kiss Booth under the mistletoe…" Bones murmured blushing slightly.

Amy giggled. "Who would've thought? You'd never imagine Caroline Davis being the romantic type!"

"She said she was feeling puckish and that my kissing Booth would amuse her… I don't know if she left amused or more like surprised…" the scientist said.

"I bet you guys show her a real lesson on how a good kiss must be!" Amy said amusedly and giggled again at Brennan's very red face. "No wonder where all the sexual tension between you comes from!"

"What?" Bones exclaimed. "No, Amy! We… We are just partners! Nothing else!"

"Suuure… And I'm Britney Spears…"

"Who?" Brennan asked clueless as always.

"Britney… Oh! Forget it…" Amy said sipping at her cup. "Temperance, I might sound a little out of place since we don't really know each other very well but… I'm sorry. I just can't believe you and Booth are nothing but partners… Come on! A partner does not do what that guy has made for you!"

"No, that's how Booth is…" Brennan tried to defend herself.

"A partner would say he understands how you must be feeling about your family being in prison and would buy you a beer, but I'm very sure he wouldn't search for a bishop and a psychiatrist who stand there for your brother to have his arrest diminished!" Bones tried to argue but she couldn't find a word to explain her relationship with Booth. "And what about the tree yesterday night, huh? It was the sweetest thing I've seen a man do for a woman!" Amy continued. "That can only come from someone who is deeply in love!"

The blond woman was as excited as a teenager talking to her best friend in high school about her first crush, but the expression in Temperance's eyes made her heart ache with pain. The woman was totally scared, her blue eyes shouted her fear out loud. "He is not… in love with me…" Bones' voice was low and sad. "He's just a good friend to me…"

Amy felt sorry for her "sister in law", it was obvious she and Booth were still dealing with their relationship, but if being "just partners" was what this was for them both, they definitely needed a big push!

"Temperance… What you've told me about Booth makes me think he is in love with you! I would bet you anything!" Amy reached to pat the scientist's hand.

"He can't be! All my relationships had ended up so bad! I have a terrible luck with men!"

"I would say your luck has just changed!" the blond woman insisted and Temperance was about to argue when her cell phone rang. She felt her stomach flutter at the sight of the caller ID.

"Booth?"

"Talking about the king of Rome…" Amy said loud enough for him to hear her.

"Bones, hi! Merry Christmas again!" the agent replied. "Where are you?"

"Merry Christmas, Booth," she replied. "I'm at Amy's… I came to bring the presents Santa left for the girls… Why?" Brennan was almost wishing for them to have a case so she could escape from Amy's curious look.

"We have a case!" Booth announced with such joy it seemed he was announcing he had won the lottery. "A body dumped right in front of the Federal Court of Justice".

"Okay… Are you coming to pick me up or shall I meet you there?" Bones had adopted her professional self again, so her voice didn't show any kind of special emotion.

"No, I'll be there in 15 minutes. See you later", the agent said finishing the call.

"Well… I guess Christmas is over for me," Temperance announced drinking the last sip of coffee. "We have a case…"

"Is it my impression or you're almost happy about the new case?" Amy challenged the scientist.

"What? No! I'm not happy about someone's death!"

"I didn't mean you're happy that someone died, Temperance!" the woman replied. "I meant you're happy because you're going to see Booth…"

"No, Amy. Booth and I are partners and that's all, really!" Bones said facing her "sister in law" seriously. "There's a line you can't cross with the people you work with, especially when your work means to be constantly in danger…"

"A line? What line? Who says so?"

"Booth… And I think he's right…"

Amy sighed: those two, they really needed help to see what everybody else around could see. "He told you about the line?" Temperance nodded. "Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I really think he said so just to stop himself from telling you how he feels about you…"

"How he feels about me?" Bones asked quite clueless. "We… we're partners! He always says so!"

"He can say it, but it doesn't mean he believes it!" Amy continued their argument, and Bones would've replied again hadn't it be for the door bell that rang at the very moment.

"He's here…" Temperance said as the other woman went to open the door for the agent.

"Hi. Merry Christmas", Booth greeted the woman when she opened the door.

"Merry Christmas, agent Booth! Please come in!" Amy said and noticed how the man's eyes immediately searched for his "partner" and they shone differently when he found her. "Hey, Bones…" he said in a low voice as she approached. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah…" Bones said, her eyes equally locked in her partner's. "Thanks a lot, Amy, I had a great time!" she said hugging the blond woman.

"Thank you, Temperance, for the presents and all. Emma, Halley come say bye to auntie Tempe!" she ordered her girls and they went to hug Bones. Booth smiled softly, thinking on how his partner usually said she was not good with kids.

"What were you talking about?" Booth asked Bones when they were on their way to the crime scene.

"What?" Bones asked clueless.

"What were you and Amy talking about when I called you? I heard her say 'talking about the King of Rome…'"

"Oh…" Bones blushed lightly and looked away trying to think about an excuse quickly. "Nothing special…"

"You were talking about me?" the agent insisted. Good with people as he was, he knew her partner was hiding something.

"What? No!" she said looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "Why do you think we would be talking about you?" Bones tried to hide her nervousness. Her conversation with Amy had left her thinking a lot.

"I don't know… usually when you talk about the King of Rome, it means you're talking about the person that has just interrupted…" Booth tried to sound as casual as he could, and flashed her his charming smile.

"Well, this was not the case…" Brennan stated stubbornly, looking away through the window.

"Oh, come on, Bones," he insisted, "what's the problem with it? You were not telling lies about me, were you?"

She chose not to reply: she was not longer sure on what the truth was. She remained silent, looking at the snowed landscape all around. "I thought so…" she heard him say.

The finally arrived to the Federal Court building to meet the big group of police cars that were surrounding the place. Policemen were walking here and there, keeping away the people that were trying to get a peek of what was happening there.

"What do we have?" Booth asked another FBI agent that met them half way.

"A black car dropped a body while passing by. It has a message too…" the agent explained.

"A body? And why am I here then?" Brennan asked.

"You'll see, Dr. Brennan… It's not a body as usual…" he stopped by the place where the body was and pointed his lantern. There, inside a trash bag, laid what once was a human body, now totally black after being burned to the bone. Every part of the body had been separated so they fit in the bag.

"When the car dropped the bag, it opened and revealed its contents. A family was passing by and one of the kids told his father that there was a leg lying over the snow…" the man continued explaining, while Bones kneeled in front of the package and examined it.

"Yes, the body is complete. Every part is here… By the size of the tibia, I think it was a man… I would need to see the skull to say more, but I don't want to move the bones until Hodgins checks on particles that might be useful", she said and closed the bag.

"You said there was a message too… What did the message say?" Booth asked, giving Brennan a hand to stand up. Against all odds, she didn't protest and actually took it.

The agent handled Booth the piece of paper. "Merry Christmas, Mrs. Julian", he read. "Caroline Julian?" he asked. The other agent nodded.

"We have to take the body to the lab as soon as possible, Booth…" Brennan offered.

"Yeah…" Booth was about to reply when he heard the squealing of a car coming near. All his senses where in high alert even before someone more shouted "Down!" He reacted immediately, grabbing Bones' arm and pulling her close to his chest, then pushing her down to the floor, his body covering hers totally, ready to take any bullet for her. He heard the sound of the shooting almost distant, mixed with the frightened cries of the people around, but he was a lot more aware of his partner's integrity than of anything else. He felt her flinch under his chest with every shot, her head resting almost automatically in the nape of his neck.


	3. Chapter III

**CHAPTER III**

Silence was almost deafening when the shooting was over. It felt so unreal: it was hardly 2.00 pm, the sun shone timidly between the snowy clouds and the white layer that covered everything around made it a perfect scenario for everything… except a shooting scene.

Booth raised his head slowly, his body still covering Brennan's. Only a slight groan from her made him move away quickly. "Are you ok, Bones?" he said, his hand automatically touching her face and a red spot that had formed in her left cheek.

"Yeah… What happened?" the anthropologist asked confusedly.

"Do I really need to explain?" Booth replied in what was supposed to be a joke, but under the circumstances sounded more like bitter sarcasm. Brennan shot him a reproachful gaze.

He started to look around to see what the consequences of the attack had been. "Booth!" he heard his partner call from beneath. She was kneeling in front of a man who was just lying over the snow. He looked down and recognized the young agent that had been talking to them just a minute before. Brennan shook her head: a bullet had hit him right on the heart.

"We need to get you and the body back in the lab immediately," he stated seriously, grabbing her arm to make her stand up.

"What, Booth?"

"This is not addressed just to Caroline… They want you too…" he said just as he walked her to his SUV, opened the passenger door for her and made her go inside. He went to his own seat quickly and made a phone call before he started the engine.

"It's Booth. I take it you've heard about the body in the Federal Court. I'm sending a couple of agents to your place and I need you at the Jeffersonian as soon as possible," he ordered. Brennan could hear some mumbled sounds of protest on the other side of the line. "Caroline, the body was addressed to you! And Bones and I have just been shot at! I don't care what you two think! I'm keeping you two alive no matter what and I need to know you're safe! Get your coat and be ready for the agents to pick you up!" he closed his cell phone and turned to look at his partner. "I'll have the guys bagging everything you tell me, the snow if you want, but you won't be outside until we know who did this!"

She was about to argue, her instinct kicking immediately. "That is the end of the discussion, Bones, don't even try it!"

"Male, in his early twenties… I'm almost sure Latin…" Brennan was telling Booth about an hour later, when she was already examining the remains in the safety of the lab. There were now more policemen than usual surrounding the platform.

"Sweetie, are you all right?" Angela asked running up the stairs that led to the platform, Hodgins following her close. "Booth told us what happened…"

"I'm all right, Angela…" the anthropologist said. "He didn't have to bother you two…"

"Bother?" Hodgins answered before than the artist. "I take it you mean 'concern', Dr. Brennan?"

"It's Christmas after all, Hodgins and you two…" Bones started.

"Sweetie, drop it, ok? We care about you and there's no reason what so ever that could keep us away… Now, what do we have here?" Angela said leaning to examine the remains.

"I hope you can make a facial reconstruction as soon as possible, Angela… The body was addressed to Caroline Julian and Booth is totally freaked out by the case…" the scientist explained. "We need to know who he is and who killed him fast…"

"All right… Let me get my notebook and my pencil…"

"Have you determined what kind of accelerator was used to burn the body?" Hodgins asked leaning to smell it. "I'm pretty sure it was normal gasoline…"

"That's all your department, Hodgins…" Brennan replied taking her gloves off and searching for her partner. He was just down the platform, his cell phone glued to his ear. She walked down to him.

"Now, would you explain me why on Earth you dare to interrupt my Christmas holyday and bring me here escorted by two FBI agents?" a very mad Caroline made her way up to Booth and Brennan. For a moment, even the brave scientist felt intimidated.

"Merry Christmas to you too, Caroline," Booth replied obviously frustrated. "And my only reason is that I care for your life, is that enough?"

"If you are more specific, I can decide…" the US attorney replied and followed Bones and Booth to the platform.

"We found him right in front of the Federal Court building, with a nice note for you…" the FBI agent explained as Brennan handled her the note, now carefully kept in a Ziploc bag.

"And who is this supposed to be that it's my present?" she asked sarcastically.

"Manuel Díaz…" Angela replied from her place in front of a computer, where she was running the data base of the FBI. "An important file about drugs, mainly traffic… The last connection they know about is that he was related to Ramón Ortez…"

"The leader of the Mara Muerte…" Booth murmured, color draining off his face.

"The one who put a price on your lady scientist's head?" Caroline asked unaware that Bones didn't know about it.

"What?!" Brennan asked and turned to face Booth.

"Uh huh.." Caroline realized she had talked too much.

"Why did you never tell me about this?" Bones had her hands on her hips, obviously mad.

"Bones, wait. I handled this in its moment, ok?" the agent tried to explain.

"Do you think I didn't have the right to know?" she continued. "It's my life we're talking about!"

"I handled it, ok? You didn't need to know!"

"I've told you a thousand of times I can protect myself! I don't need you babysitting me!"

Caroline stood away a few feet, knowing this was something entirely personal. Angela, Hodgins and the attorney watched the exchange as if it was a tennis match.

"I'm not babysitting you and you obviously cannot protect yourself!" the agent was getting madder with the second.

"I've proven you I can!"

"Like today?" he shot back. "You would be killed by now hadn't I been there!"

"I wouldn't have been there if you hadn't called!"

"Ortez put a price on your head! I handled it and they left you alone for more than two years! Doesn't it count?" he retorted. "If you consider that babysitting, then I do babysit you and I will continue doing it!"

"Why?! I'm perfectly able to…"

"Because I care about you, ok?!" Booth shouted loud enough to make her silent. "Because I care about you so much that I don't want to see you hurt! Is that wrong?!"

Angela took a sharp breath, Hodgins mouthed a silent "Oh, my…" while Caroline couldn't help a big smile. Booth kept his dark brown eyes fixed in his partner's blue ones, but this time he wasn't sure what he was reading on them. He saw them getting bright with tears until she couldn't stand it more. She turned away and walked to her office quickly. "Bones! Bones, wait!" the agent said, but he knew better than push her at the moment.


	4. Chapter IV

**Chapter IV **

"Women…" Booth shook his head and took a second before turning back to face Angela, Hodgins and Caroline. Cam climbed up to the platform at the exact moment. "What's up with Dr. Brennan?" she asked to the agent. "I got Angela's call about this being an emergency…"

"Don't worry, cherie…" Caroline intervened eyeing Booth, "that was just a little argument between them…"

"Okay…" Cam murmured looking at Booth. She couldn't help the tiny sting of jealousy she felt at the way Caroline had eyed Booth and he had blushed lightly. "So, what's the emergency?"

"That is supposed to be a protected witness who was set to testify on January 2nd!" Caroline pointed at the burned corpse. "And… apparently he was the reason why Booth and Dr. Brennan got shot too!"

"Oh, my God!" Cam exclaimed. "Are you ok?"

"We… we're fine…" Booth replied dryly. "This is your witness?" he asked the US attorney.

"'Was' seems much more appropriate, cher… I highly doubt he will speak now…" She eyed the corpse again. "At least to the jury and not to a bunch of squints like you… no offense intended…"

"If he was protected by Home land security, how is it possible that he ended up dead?" the agent asked most to himself than to Caroline.

"I'm sorry to say this, but the Mara Muerte is not a gang you can belittle so easily…" Cam said, the file of the guy in her hands. "If the Mara Muerte managed to take him out of the witness protection and dropped him in front of the Federal Court in the middle of Christmas day…"

"What are you waiting for, Booth?" Caroline said pushing the agent playfully. "Go arrest this Ortez guy! Save your squint's head and my trial!"

"Okay, Caroline, stop it! Don't you think I'm willing to go get this guy and kill him myself? I am! But I can't do it just like this!"

"And what are you planning then?"

"I'm giving you a complete file about Ortez and Bones and her team will give you the evidence you need, but I'm planning to do this while keeping you both alive!" He was really mad now: not only he had to deal with the silent threat pointing to Bones and Caroline, but also he needed to fight their stubbornness.

"Mrs. Julian," Cam tried to help Booth, "my team can give you evidence that links Ortez directly with the murder of your witness. I think that is better than just a discarded witness…"

"Yes, it is…"

"But you have to let them work and cooperate with us…" Caroline was about to argue but Cam imposed herself, "and with cooperation I mean helping Booth by avoiding unnecessary risks. I know it's not comfortable for you, but it's necessary, so…"

"I was spending the week with my daughter, Booth! She came from Massachusetts and would come home with me tomorrow!" the attorney was not giving up that easily.

"Bring her here…" Cam suggested. "I guess she might find exciting what we do here, and who knows? Perhaps I may decide to offer her a job for when she's out of college…"

Caroline had nothing more to say, so she looked at Cam and Booth and took her cell phone to call her daughter. Booth sighed in relief. 'One less to go…' he thought, knowing that Brennan would be a much more difficult case.

"I'll go talk to her…"Angela told him passing by the agent. "Give her some time…"

Booth looked at the artist for a second, and nodded. Then he left the platform and walked outside the building, into the snowed gardens of the institute.

He didn't notice he was observed from a window in the first floor. Temperance saw him walk around the frozen rose gardens, no coat, hands tucked in his pockets, head lowered as in deep thought. She knew well that he was thinking about their prior argument, that he would be sorry for saying he had to babysit her, that he only meant to take care of her as he always did. She was ashamed herself, she knew she should have talked to him privately, not shout at him in front of everybody... His constant efforts to protect her bothered her, but at the same time she was aware their lives often depended on taking care of each other.

Some time ago, it was so easy to understand where she stood when it came to Booth. But now, she didn't know: he dragged her with him when they had a case, their late dinners or breakfasts were now more and more frequent… and their kisses… first in her office and then in her home… She was totally confused by the feelings she had had with those kisses, and his statement earlier, that he cared for her enough to not want to see her hurt, hadn't helped much to clear her confusion. She sighed heavily and turned away from the window, just to find her best friend standing by her door.

"Don't tell me you didn't know it 'cause not even you can be so naïve…" Angela said. Brennan walked to her couch and let herself fall there. "Sweetie, he does care about you so much, you know it…" she said patting her friend's hand.

"Did you know about Ortez?" the scientist asked.

"No, but you heard him: he had taken care of it! Can't you just see it and accept that you in fact need his protection once in a while?"

Bones shook her head. "So far I've never needed someone to look after me as if I was some fragile porcelain doll or a princess from a fairy tale! I don't like the feeling of depending on someone else!"

"I know that! I know that you don't like to get close to anyone 'cause deep inside you feel that whoever you get attached to will end up betraying and abandoning you!" Angela stated, and she knew she was right the moment she saw her friend's eyes filling with tears. "But, Tempe, that's not true! I haven't run away! I would never, ever betray you! And, Booth, sweetie… Booth would die first than betray you…"

Temperance met her friend's eyes, and the fear Angela saw in them made the artist feel so sorry for her friend. "I know he won't betray me…" she said. "He promised himself he wouldn't…"

"Then? Why don't you believe him, Brennan?"

"I want to believe him, Angela!" Brennan's blue eyes didn't held the tears anymore. "But deep inside, I'm afraid he will not fulfill his promise! Do you think I'm so stupid that I don't see he's been the only constant man in my life the last three years? The only one that has been with me when I have most needed a friend? He hasn't only saved my life more times than I can possibly remember, he has been with me in some of the hardest days of my life, like when we found my mother! When my father and my brother ran away again, he stayed!"

"Brennan, if you know all this, then why are you so afraid?!" the artist knew the answer, but she needed her friend to speak it out loud.

"Because…" the scientist tried to say it as fast as she had been talking before, but she couldn't. There was a big knot in her throat that kept the words from going out. Tears kept on running freely along her cheeks, but they didn't free her heart from the pain.

"You're so afraid that fear is not allowing you to see things clearly, Bren…" Angela spoke softly after a few minutes, reaching to hug her friend. "Booth is so unlike any other man I've met, that I would put my hands on fire for him… He is not leaving you."

"I'd be lost if he did, Ange…" the scientist murmured, her eyes focused on the tissue paper she had in her hands.

"Brennan… Can I ask you a favor? Take it as a personal favor…" Bones nodded lightly. "Just don't push him away, ok? Especially not now, when you need him by your side so much… Let him be with you, and let yourself trust a little more on him… Little by little, I know you'll be sure one day that he will be there for you… forever…" Angela patted her friend's hand a last time and left her, closing her door as she left to allow her some privacy. The artist knew they were so close to admit what she had known since the first time they've met, that they didn't need a forceful push, just a tiny constant one.

Booth was so lost in thought that he never heard the muffled steps coming close to him, until the voice of his partner made him jump. "You should wear your coat. It's cold here…" she said handling him his jacket.

He took it, touching her hand in the process. He felt her shiver lightly, her light intake confirming it to him. "Thank you, Bones…" he said without breaking her gaze.

"I should be the one thanking you, Booth…" she said blushing a little. "And apologizing too…"

If he didn't know her so well, he wouldn't know how hard it was for her to recognize when she was wrong and when she had to apologize. "Hey! Did I say it was necessary to apologize?" he said in a much lighter tone. Tenderly he lifted her chin with his index, so he could see her baby blue eyes. She surprised him a second later by throwing her arms around his neck to hug him tightly. "I've lost count of how many times you've saved me…" she murmured in his ear and he was the one shivering this time.

The feeling of her in his arms was all he needed to get rid of the tension he was resenting after the earlier events. He welcomed her hugging her as tightly, his eyes closed to enjoy the moment even more. For a brief second, he wondered what he would feel like if the shot had reached her and he panicked. He would be lost too. He made him complete, he needed her by his side, no matter what.

She sensed his mood when he tightened his hold a little more, and felt the urge to pull away for a brief second, but she fought it and stayed in his arms, burying her face in his neck, inhaling his perfume and finding it even more soothing than other times.

"If you buy me a pie, we can call it even…" Booth said a long minute later, and Bones could help but chuckle at his comment. Reluctantly, she pulled away and smiled at the agent, who couldn't help but cup her cheek lovingly, grazing very lightly the reddened scratch she had gotten when they landed on the snowed soil of the Federal Court. Her smile always did him; when she shot him that smile that showed her white teeth and that made her eyes even brighter, he would always find himself smiling back at her, wishing with all his strength to cross the distance between them, a small distance that every time seemed to become smaller.

"Okay…" she accepted his invitation and surprised him again by circling his waist so they would walk to the diner still holding each other. He smiled softly and circled her shoulders, pulling her close too, just as he had done the day she had been left aside in a dock by a man who had told her she did matter to him.

They didn't see Angela observing them from a window over the hall, nor the kiss she gave to Hodgins when he told her she was coming close to her goal of getting them together, but it was obvious to everyone in the lab that things were ok between them again when they returned half an hour later, still chuckling and smiling at each other. Angela and Hodgins exchanged an accomplice gaze, that went unnoticed by Cam, who also looked at the artist.

"Well, what do we have, squints?" Booth asked following Brennan, who was buttoning her blue lab coat.

"I've tried to isolate any kind of particles over his skin, but the accelerator they used almost destroyed everything…" Hodgins explained. "Yet…" he turned around and presented them a tray with what seemed to have been a shoe once, "the soil of the shoes should give us a trace of where he was in his last minutes."

"Excellent, Hodgins!" Brennan congratulate her colleague. "Now we only have to determine the cause of the death…"

"And that is up to you and Zack…" Booth said. "Any news of him?"

"We caught him in the middle of his flight home, but he is supposed to be back tomorrow, first hour…" Cam explained.

"You shouldn't have bothered him. I could do this…" Brennan started, but Cam raised a hand to make her silent.

"First of all, this is not a 'bother', Dr. Brennan. We are a team and we are supposed to be there for each other no matter if it was Christmas or Thanksgiving day", the dark skinned woman said. "And second, I think he had the right to know about what happened here and decide if he wanted to be part of the case or not… I didn't threaten to fire him if he didn't come…" she winked and left the platform.

"Cam!" Bones called her boss. "Thank you too…", she said and received a friendly smile in return.

"If we identify the particles and relate them with some place Ortez owns, you'd have a good reason to arrest him!" Brennan was arguing with Booth late that night when he was driving her and Caroline to their places. Another black car was following them discretely, as part of Booth's security plan.

"I want the whole package, Bones! Not only to arrest him by one murder, but also for the traffic of illegal drugs and maybe for more murders! You can give me that!" the agent asked.

"But not in two days, Booth, and not from one single corpse! That's crazy!" the scientist continued.

"You are good! Come on, you can give me that! You do miracles with your bones!"

"Now, we do not perform miracles! Miracles don't exist! They are lucky coincidences! And what we do with bones are not coincidences!"

"Here we go again! You attacking my beliefs!" Booth said.

"I'm not attacking you! I'm only stating a fact that is scientifically proven!"

Booth pulled over and Caroline doubted if the argument would become even bitter. Only a minute later did she realize they had arrived to her place. "Are you sure everything is ok between you two?" the attorney asked with the same shocked face she had had when they had first kissed in Bones' office.

"Yes, why?"·Temperance asked, looking at Booth, who suddenly seemed totally relaxed again.

"I dunno… After the little feast you had in Dr. Brennan's office the other day, I thought I would never see you arguing again like this…"

Both Booth and Brennan blushed at the mention of their "brotherly" kiss that had been everything but brotherly. Booth cleaned his throat. "No! I mean… we were not really arguing… were we?" he looked for support in his partner.

"No! I mean… We… were just discussing the case…" she added.

"I see now why you two need to see a shrink even if you are not married and trying to save a falling marriage…" Booth and Brennan exchanged another embarrassed glance. "Well, I shall see you both tomorrow at your lab…" the older woman said climbing down the car. Booth joined her soon, checking on the FBI car that was following them and the other that was already parked at Caroline's sidewalk.

"Please, Caroline, let the agents check on your house first, ok? Tell your daughter about what's going on and stay away from windows…" the agent recommended.

"Yeah, yeah, cher… I will… I also want my head over my shoulders for a while more… See you tomorrow…"

"See you…" Booth said watching the woman climb up the stairs followed by the agents.

He drove up to Temperance's apartment this time, sharing with her a comfortable silence. This time she didn't argue when he parked the SUV in one of the visitors parking places, climbed down first, went to open the door for her and made sure to lock the car. They went upstairs until her door and he waited for her to open it, then went inside first and checked on every room and every window while she waited in the hall.

"Ok, everything is clear…" he declared as he walked to where she was standing and made her come inside. He locked the door behind him. "Please, Bones, I want you to stay away from the windows. There will be agents in the hall all night, but still any precaution is not useless."

Bones nodded. His serious expression told her he was not leaving room for any argument, nor that she wanted to start one. This time she felt threatened, and that scared her deeply inside, even if she wouldn't accept it out loud, that's why she wasn't questioning his staying the night, even if he hadn't asked before. "Ok, thank you, Booth… The bed in the guests' room is ready, and there are more covers in the closet if you are cold… Russ left some sweat pants in there, I guess you'll find them more comfortable…" She walked to her bedroom and leaned against her door frame, tiredness clouding her blue eyes.

"Are you ok, Bones?" Booth asked softly, hating to see his partner so down.

She closed her eyes briefly, before she replied. "I'm ok… I just want all this to be over…" She opened them again when she felt his hand delving into her hair.

"I want it to be over soon too…" he said in a low, comforting voice. "I know how you hate to feel threatened, to not feel free of doing and going everywhere you want to… But it will be over soon, Temperance, I promise you it will…"

He very rarely used her given name and it still made her feel different, special… At the beginning, she had hated the funny nickname he had given her, but as time went by, she grew used to it, and her real name remained as a very special manner to call her, only when he wanted to make the occasion different in some way. He promising her again that he would guide her over this ordeal was definitely a special occasion.

"I know you will make it end soon, Booth…" she murmured, her cheek still in contact with the palm of his hand.

It felt so different for him to see the trust in her baby blue eyes that he wondered what Angela had told her before she went to apologize to him. This was definitely the first time she allowed him to see her depending on him, but it only made his care for her grow more and more. At that moment, he would have given anything to pull her in his arms and ask her for a chance to take care of her forever, but he knew she wouldn't allow that much. Fighting with what was becoming a physical urgency, he leaned to kiss her cheek long and lovingly, grazing her soft skin just a little more than necessary. "Sleep tight, baby… I'll see you tomorrow…" he murmured, not minding the uncommon term of endearment between them. He smiled at her again and she closed her door, a small, happy smile playing in her lips at the simple knowledge that he was right across the door in front of hers.


	5. Chapter V

Hello all!!

First of all, thank you very very much for all the reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying this story!! Thanks for the encouragement to continue, I hope I can finish it before I have to go back to school and work.

Let's see what you think about the new chapter. Just a little note: you'll see I invented a character here that has just been mentioned in the show, that is Caroline's daughter. I hope I got the last name right this time, hehe ;-). I even checked the list of characters names of the "Man in the house" episode to be sure.

Now, enough talking… ENJOY! (And review when done, please!)

**Chapter V**

Just a far, tiny whimper made his eyes snap open. He held his breath to try to hear it again, and after a few minutes he did: a muffled sound, like those of someone complaining against a pillow. He stood up carefully, not reaching for his shoes in an attempt to avoid any kind of noise that could disturb his partner, opened his door and crossed the narrow corridor up to her door.

Just as carefully, he opened the door knob and his blood froze in his veins: someone had a pillow covering his partner's face and the muffled sounds were those of her erratic breath trying to take air out of somewhere. His instinct was telling him to break in the room and take the guy off Brennan, but the weak light filtering through the window allowed him to see he had a gun and he had left his in his room.

Fighting his urgency of breaking in, he walked back to his room to look for the gun he had left over the night table, his heart pounding loudly. He walked his steps back and just as his hand rested on the door knob, a deafening sound made his heart stop: the shot resounded in the otherwise silent night.

"NO!" he shouted and broke in Brennan's room just in time to see a dark figure getting ready to jump through the window. He aimed and shot, but the man managed to escape.

It was only a second, but he felt it was an eternity: he ran to Bones' bed and took off the pillow to reveal the pale face of his partner whiter than he had ever seen her, her creamy skin in total contrast with the red blood that was emanating from the single shot that had entered in the middle of her front. She was dead. One single shot had killed her.

"No… No… BONES!" he shouted as he reached for her lifeless body and pulled her into a desperate hug. "BONES! BONES!" he repeated and repeated, shaking her, holding her tight, praying with all his heart that by some kind of miracle she regained consciousness. "BOOOONES!" he cried again, tears running his cheeks.

"Booth?" a tiny voice penetrated his otherwise deafened ears. "Booth?" it repeated from somewhere.

He needed to calm down and breathe, but his arms just couldn't release Brennan's lifeless body. This could not be happening, he was supposed to protect her! "Booth!" the tiny voice continued and he had to make it silent. "I was supposed to protect you, Bones! Please, forgive me! I need you back! We're a team! We're partners!" he cried as loud as his tears would allow him to talk, his eyes shut so he didn't see his Bones' corpse.

"Booth!" the voice continued, "I'm here, I'm all right!" Somehow the words started to make their way to his brain and had a meaning. Whose voice was it? "Wake up, you're dreaming, Booth! I'm here!"

He needed to breathe and he forced himself to do so. He exhaled and opened his eyes, just to meet his partner's crystal blue ones. Her delicate hand was on his cheek and somehow he managed to sit up quickly.

"Are you ok, Booth?" she asked reaching to turn on the lamp at the bedside. "You had a nightmare."

He was panting heavily, the images of her with a bullet in the head evaporating quickly. He turned to see Brennan, who was sitting by his side. "Yeah… It was a nightmare…" he murmured, still sweating and shaking slightly.

"Come on, I'll warm you up some milk…" she said and walked out of the room and to the kitchen.

He joined her a minute later and took a seat in the dining table while she brought a glass with warm milk and a pair of cookies. "Do you want to tell me what you were dreaming about?"

He reached to take her hand and shook his head before he started to talk. "It was about you… I hadn't been able to protect you…" She saw how his jaw tensed and regretted her question for a moment. "Someone had entered into your room… I was too late…"

She reached to cover his hand with her free one and caressed it lightly. "See? You are not. I'm here, in one piece, waiting for you to drink that milk before it gets cold again…" she tried to ease his mood with a joke, and got a little smile in return. "You are never late when it comes to me, Booth…" she said with so much confidence that he was almost scared. "I feel safe when I'm with you…" she added.

She had never told him up to what extent she trusted him, and knowing it now made him wonder if he would always be ready to protect her. "Yeah…" he murmured, his eyes fixed on hers, their dialogue a lot more meaningful than the one they were sharing with words. The distance between them had started to become smaller as other times, and for a second Booth discovered himself looking at her lips and not her eyes. He cleared his throat and leaned back in the chair. In one gulp, he finished his milk and finally let go of her hand. "It's late… I'm sorry I woke you up…"

She leaned against her chair too. "That's ok… I owe you more than one…"

"Let's go back to sleep, ok?" he said taking the empty glass to the sink. "The sooner we catch this guy, the better…" He guided her to her room again, and closed the door not before checking it was in fact empty.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth, I want you to meet my daughter, Jessica Marron…" Caroline introduced a young woman who was standing by her side early the following morning. She should be twenty at most and had the same eye color than her mother, but she looked a lot less cranky. In fact, she had the air of being an easy-to-go, friendly person that Brennan liked since the beginning.

"Oh, you're the Bone lady!" Jessica exclaimed and clapped excitedly. "My mom talks so much about you! I've read all your books! Had I known I was going to meet you, I would've brought them to have them signed!"

Although she normally hated to be the center of so much attention and have just learned how to deal with her fans, Bones liked the girl and made a mental note about giving her the books signed anyway. "Nice to meet you too, Jessica!" she said. "I understand you study at the MIT… What are you studying?"

"Medical science and technology," she replied, "but I'm thinking about taking my doctorate in forensic anthropology."

"Well, well, look at that!" Booth commented, surprised to see Bones blushing a little. "You should watch your steps, Bones, or you might face close competition here!"

"Okay…" the scientist said smiling at her partner too. "What do you say if you become my new assistant while you're here?" she proposed to the girl, whose face lit up immediately.

"I'd love to!"

"Wow, Bones liked her! That's good!" Booth said, knowing that his partner's social abilities still remained limited. "So, Caroline, any events in the night?"

"No… The agents remained in their places all night long, drove me here early… What about you?"

"Nothing… Bones' place was quiet too…" the agent replied.

"Her place? You mean you spent the night with her?" the attorney asked truly surprised.

"Yeah… why?" Booth asked defensively. He knew what it looked like, but…

"Cher… and you two still argue like yesterday? Are you blind or what? I knew I wasn't wrong when I requested a kiss for the trailer!"

"Okay, Caroline, hold on! That's not what you think! I spent the night with her, in the guests' room, because I wanted to be sure she was safe!" he argued. "I've done that before!"

"Have you kissed her before?"

"Who did you kiss, Booth?" Cam asked interrupting their conversation. The agent didn't know if to feel grateful for the interruption or to be even more concerned.

"None…" he replied dryly. "Now, can we just focus in the case, please? What do you have so far, Cam?"

Cam and Caroline exchanged a glance. "Hodgins has narrowed the places where the victim might have been killed to around a dozen or so… You now need to ask for them to be checked…" she handled him a piece of paper. "Zach arrived early in the morning and he has the remains clean now, so he, Dr. Brennan and, by what I saw, Jessica are examining them now so they can figure out what killed him."

"I need a complete inform, Dr. Saroyan, if you don't mind…" Caroline asked. "I need to convince the judge not to cancel the trial…"

"Sure, Mrs. Julian… Come with me…" Booth saw the two women walking away from him and sighed. The case was already complicated enough, and he still needed to convince everyone that he and Bones were just partners? "Squints…" he murmured and walked to Brennan's office.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Bones! What do you have here?" Booth asked irrupting in the lab where she, Zach and Jessica were examining the now creamy bones.

"Bones?" Jessica chuckled at the nickname, "that's how 'the hot agent' calls you?"

"'Hot agent'?" Brennan asked obviously amused. "What about that, huh?" she asked her partner, who was standing by her side as always. "Yeah, he got me that stupid nickname when we first started to work together and it seems I won't get rid of it unless I get rid of him too…"

"My mom tells me often about the people she works with… And when I first read your books, I asked her if the real agent was as hot as Andy Lister… I must tell you, Dr. Brennan pictures you very well…" Jessica smiled at Booth, and chuckled when he blushed.

"It's not me!"

"It's not him!" Both Brennan and Booth replied at the same time.

"Mom said you always deny it too…" the young girl winked at them.

"I… hum… I'm heading to the FBI quarters, ok? Hodgins has a list of places we need to check. If there's somewhere we have to go, I'll come to pick you up. Please, do not leave the institute alone, do you hear me?"

"Yes, Booth, I got it…" Brennan said shaking her head. "I will behave, dad…"

"Funny…" he replied. "Zach, if your boss leaves this building alone, I'll shoot you, ok?"

"I-I… don't understand why me…" the young anthropologist said, totally unaware of what had happened.

"Don't worry, Zach, you know Booth…" Brennan said still chuckling lightly. "Start looking for the cause of death, ok? I'll be in my office".

She walked out of the lab, Jessica following her close. "So… still not afraid? Don't you want to run to the bathroom and get rid of breakfast?" Bones teased the girl, when she saw her excited face.

"No! Not at all! It's so amazing!" the girl's eyes shone with joy. "It's incredible how you can actually figure out who a person was, what he or she loved to do, what he or she was sick of, how they died… and all that just from the bones!"

"Yes…" Brennan guided the girl to the coffee service, and they got a pair of steaming mugs. "But that has its ups and downs… See? I'm often told I'm better with bones and dead people, than with the living ones…"

"No way!"

"Oh, yes, even Booth and your mother told me so!" they took a seat in Brennan's couch and the scientist seemed to be remembering those first days, when she and the agent would bicker especially because of her lack of "social abilities".

Jessica sighed deeply and leaned against the couch. "It must be so nice to have a knight in a shining armor like Agent Booth!"

"Ohhh! He's not my knight in a shining armor, Jessica!" Bones protested.

"No? Why? I mean, are you blind?!" the young girl exclaimed in total disbelief. "Don't you see what a piece of goodness he is?! Haven't you kissed him?"

"I-I…" Brennan stuttered and blushed.

"You have, haven't you?!"

"Yes… I have…" she finally accepted.

"And? Is he good?"

Bones didn't know how she had gotten into this conversation with the girl. Normally she would have shut her personal life to anyone that would try to find out something, but she liked Jessica, and somehow she felt comfortable to discuss the things that lately had made herself question her feelings. She closed her eyes, a permanent smile in her face: the feeling of Booth's lips on hers was still so vivid that she felt her heart racing and a sudden wave of warmth running along her veins. Was she actually longing for another kiss like that? "Oh, my God…" she chuckled before she faced her "new" assistant of the week, "yes…", she couldn't suppress the silly laugh that accompanied her words, "yes, he is good… Booth's actually a very good kisser…"

"WHAT??" Angela overheard the last sentence and got into her friend's office. "What did you just say, Brennan?"

Temperance left her mug aside and covered her reddened face. "I kissed Booth, Angela…" she finally faced the artist. "I kissed him under the mistletoe a couple of days ago…"

"And you only tell me now?" Angela had her arms in her hips. "I can't believe it! How could you hide this from me?"

"Okay, Angela, it was mistletoe, ok? Not… a real kiss…" Somehow those last words sounded totally faked.

"Right… and mistletoe let you know he was that good…" Jessica added her two cents there.

"I'm so hurt, Brennan!" Angela said, though she had a big smile. "You didn't tell me anything! Next time I see Booth I will have to make him tell me all about it!"

"NO!" the anthropologist shouted, her expression suddenly of utter panic. "No, Angela, you can't ask him that!"

Angela knew her friend so well, that she knew she had gone off limits. "Okay, okay, sweetie, I won't! Relax! But this conversation is not over, understood? You will have to tell me and Jessica every single detail of how you two ended up under the mistletoe… I have some scenarios ready in the Angelator… that's what I came to tell you…"

"Okay, let's go…" Brennan stood up. "Coming, Jessica?"

"Sure!" the girl said. Brennan left first, Angela and Jessica behind. "Blame it on the mistletoe 'cause what happened here nobody knows…" Caroline's daughter sang quietly.

Angela chuckled and caught the lyrics. "How could something simple as a kiss change my holiday like this?"

"Angela!" Brennan warned.

"We're just singing…" Jessica intervened and smiled devilishly to the artist. Oh, working in the Jeffersonian was definitely so interesting!


	6. Chapter VI

Hello all!

First of all, bad news: my vacation is over as tomorrow I have to go back to work and school, and as much as that sounds like a bad, ol' excuse, my time for fanfic really, really shortens. That means I'm not sure how often I'm going to be able to update, but please know that I will do my best to try to do it as often as possible. Just be patient, please! I promise every update will be worth waiting for!!

I said I wanted to finish the story in the holydays 'cause it is set in these days too, so it might be a little odd to read about for example a New Year's eve party in, let's say, February, but please, bear with me, ok?

Now, enough talking. Thanks a lot for all your replies!! I'm so happy you're enjoying the story, so please, read and review! I love to know what you think about this!!

Love to all and happy 2008!

**Chapter VI**

"Lincoln and Sunset… Belongs to… Nicholas Black…" an agent in front of a computer screen told Booth and Caroline, who were standing behind him, expecting some news they desperately needed to keep the case open. "I'm sorry, no one of those places belong to Ortez, we can't relate him with your package of bones in the lab…"

"Damn it!" Booth cursed out loud.

"Calm down, Booth! We cannot let them go this easily!" the US attorney tried to calm the agent, although she was mad too.

He took his phone out and hit one button. "Bones! Please, tell me you have something on the cause of death…" Caroline waited, trying to read the scientist's response in his expression. "Stabbed? Good, isn't it?" It seemed there were not good news. "What do you mean that you cannot relate Ortez with this? No! There has to be something!"

"So far we don't have anything, Booth!" Brennan argued with her partner back in the lab: she was as anxious as he was to find something to directly incriminate Ortez with the death of Manuel Díaz, but so far they hadn't had any luck. "I have Angela running some more scenarios, but we have to wait! What she had before didn't give us much light! Height and force? Tell me how many men around 150 pounds you can find?"

Bones was so engulfed in her argument with Booth that she didn't hear the steps nor the light knock in her door glass of Lance Sweets coming inside. "That's all I have now, Booth! You know I will keep on searching but so far I haven't found more! I cannot do miracles!" The psychologist knew he had arrived in a difficult moment. "I'm not God!" He waited for the response to that particular issue. "And I was not attacking you!" He saw Brennan hit the end button and throw her cell phone away pretty mad.

"I guess this is not the best moment, is it, Dr. Brennan?" he offered.

"Dr. Sweets…" she replied, visibly embarrassed. "I was not expecting you… Please, come in…"

"You and agent Booth missed your session again… I called here and your assistant… Zach Addy… told me what happened and that you couldn't leave the building…" he explained taking a seat in front of Temperance's desk.

"That… was Booth's obsession about me not being safe if he's not around…" the scientist said shaking her head. Obviously she was pretty mad at the moment.

"Obsession?" the psychologist pointed purposefully. "Some time ago, you considered it a mutual 'concern'… said often your lives depended on it…" He knew he had a point when the woman fixed her blue eyes on him. "What happened between you and agent Booth that now it is not longer a concern, but an obsession, Dr. Brennan?"

"It obviously is an obsession when he tries to keep me grounded to the building and even threatens my assistant with shooting him if I leave the place!" she replied with evident annoyance. "I'm perfectly able to take care of myself, but he… He just…!"

When she didn't finish the sentence, Lance Sweets knew he had a map of where to start digging to take to the surface some of the secrets he needed to know. "He just feels you can't…" he completed for her. "He makes you feel he is belittling you…"

"Yes, exactly! That's my point!" Brennan straightened herself in her chair when the young man hit the point. "I'm a grown woman! I can be responsible of my own safety! I'm not saying I don't need him…" Sweets raised an eyebrow as if surprised by her chose of words. "I don't need his protection sometimes…" she corrected, "but I'm not going to be killed if he leaves me alone for… more than one minute!"

"Do you feel… cornered perhaps? Trapped by Agent's Booth constant surveillance?"

"Argh, yes!" Brennan couldn't help the expression, but then took a long minute to keep on talking. "I feel he doesn't trust me enough…"

"Do you trust him completely?" the psychologist asked back.

"What do you mean? Of course I do…"

"What would you trust him with? What is the most precious thing you would trust him with?"

This time the answer was not that simple to Temperance. What was her most precious thing in the first place? She didn't have a child like Booth, and she knew that given the opposite question, he would trust her with Parker with closed eyes. Was her life her most precious thing? Life was not a 'thing', properly speaking, and she certainly trusted Booth with her own life, she had done that and he had proven trustworthy: he had saved her and Hodgins from dying suffocated in a carbon mine. Her past? From all her colleagues and friends, Booth certainly was the one who knew more about her past than anyone else. "Dr. Brennan?" Sweets prodded when he saw her keep silence.

"There is not a single thing I don't trust him with…" she responded solemnly. Her expression held no place for doubts.

"Then the answer is simple: if you trust him completely, you don't feel the trust is mutual when he doesn't show the same level of confidence."

Brennan looked at the young man in the eye for a minute, before she stood up from her chair, arms crossed, and told him what she told Gordon Wyatt a thousand times. "I hate psychology".

Sweets chuckled lightly: that was one of those answers when a "no" meant "yes". "You hate to hear the truth, Dr. Brennan? That's surprising when it comes to someone that is always in search of truth…"

_'I don't hate to hear the truth!__'_, she thought, _'I hate it when that truth is about me!'_.

"Psychology is in fact a soft science, Dr. Brennan," he continued as if reading her thoughts, "but it is based in the reasoned deductions of the facts that are presented to us, just as you do with your own methods. You read marks on the bones, fractures, traces left by blood, but I read your reactions, the meaning you give to your words when you speak, the ways your expression changes… In the same way that medical records give you a vision of a victim's past, your past experiences give me a vision of what your current life is like. And in this case, and regarding you and agent Booth I can tell you with no doubt that I am right and you know it: he betrays your trust in him by not trusting you of taking care of yourself. And he doesn't understand it because he feels you are his responsibility".

There were very few times when she didn't have a reply to any given argument, and this was one of them. Temperance kept silence for some minutes, just looking through the window to nowhere outside. Finally she slowly turned back to face the psychologist. "I think there is no one that knows so many things about me as Booth does… He knows about my parents and how they…" she sighed before she could continue, "… abandoned me when I was a child… I had never depended on someone ever since, no one has had to take care of me, and Booth keeps on trying to do it… I appreciate it, but I feel he just goes too far sometimes…"

Sweets kept on looking at her a few more seconds, precisely checking on the slightest reaction she showed to her own words. "Dr. Brennan… if given the chance agent Booth decided to break your partnership and leave you… how would you feel about it?" he saw how her pupils grew for a second, showing obvious fear to the possibility: he had his answer given by that simple fact, much before she put it into words.

Temperance swallowed hard and broke eye contact before she could muster enough courage to respond. "I would respect his decision…" she lied.

Sweets was tempted to laugh. "You would?"

"Yes. Why not?"

"You wouldn't be mad?"

"No". She dared to watch him in the eye, resolved as she was to prove him psychological deduction could not be the same as an empirical method.

"See, Dr. Brennan?" he rested his elbows over the desk before he searched her blue eyes again. "If I had an ECG, I would show you you're lying by the sudden increased rate of your heartbeats and by the dilatation of your pupils. Those are physical signs that both you and I medically understand. But while they are for you just physical responses to a sudden rush of endorphins, to me they are related to past experiences… in this particular case, your parents leaving."

Touchée. Temperance lowered her head to hide her blurry eyes. "Agent Booth's departure would be exactly the same than your parents'… only that it would hurt twice more…" The young man felt terribly sorry for his stubborn patient as he saw her raising a trembling hand to discretely wipe a tear away. "You never thought your parents and your elder brother would abandon you because we humans are raised to trust in the people who take care of us. It hurt when they left, yes! And that's why you never wanted to become attached to anyone again, and that's why you're so interested in proving the entire world you are able to take care of yourself! But you've grown very close to agent Booth, you two have shared so many more things than you're willing to tell me or anyone else, including a kiss that I'm sure you haven't discussed, trying to convince yourselves it was just mistletoe and was totally "sexless"… Unconsciously you refuse to allow agent Booth to take care of you because you fear he will abandon you too".

Temperance said nothing. She had no arguments against what had just being said as it was all correct: her deepest fear, the one that had just once come out to the light, was Booth's betrayal, Booth's abandon. She had been so scared that time when she had asked him, in between shots of vodka, if he was going to betray her.

"I told you I had observed there was a deep emotional attachment between you and agent Booth", Sweets said standing up and heading to the door. "I know that as a fact, but you two are the ones who have to accept it and make it work. I'll see you next week. Call me if you need anything, ok?" Temperance could only nod lightly.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Ok, Booth, spill it out…" Cam told the agent just as she took a seat in front of him at Wong Foo's. "What did you want to know?"

"What's new on the Ortez case?" the agent tried to sound professional, though for someone who knew him so well it was obvious he was hiding something.

"Not much… Zach has identified the lethal weapon, but they still can't relate the death with Ortez… why?" Camille eyed him carefully. "I would've thought Dr. Brennan had told you so…"

"No… she didn't…" he said unsure on how to start. Finally he sighed deeply and leaned against his chair. "I guess I went too far with Bones… I kinda yelled at her for not giving me a concrete proof about Ortez killing Manuel Díaz…"

"I see…" the woman said. "You're not suggesting I'm asking her to forgive you, are you? 'Cause you know she and I… we often still pretty much compete against each other…"

Booth chuckled. His ex girlfriend was right: if he had seen Bones be jealous of someone, that someone definitely was Camille. And now, there he was: asking Cam precisely how to mend things with who was her total opposite. "I need to find a way to apologize to her… I don't know how though…"

"Is it that hard to tell her that you are in love with her, Booth?" Cam asked directly. She had seen this long enough to realize it. She was not blind and there had been so many times to prove her right. She could easily start a list and not finish it in hours.

Booth choked in his coffee. "What? No! I am… not…" he said blushing slightly but definitely avoiding his ex lover's eyes.

"Right…" she said with clear irony. She averted her eyes from the agent to Syd, who had just brought her a steaming pot of jasmine tea.

"This has nothing to do with me being in love with her, Camille!" he reassumed his FBI agent attitude. "This is about her security and about our job in the field… and about me pressing her for results that I know she would have given me if she had them…" he lowered his head, his voice timid again.

Cam chuckled. "You looked like a lost puppy whimpering for attention when she didn't want to go out in the field with you. I even had to order her to join you! Now you look like an embarrassed puppy that bite his owner's Prada shoes…"

"That is not helping, Camille…" he warned her, and she was surprised to see he didn't jump at the fact of being called a puppy.

"How long are you going to take to accept what everyone else around you can see, Booth?" the dark skinned woman said. "I mean, you are a man of action, you are not the kind that waits for things to work out by themselves! What's wrong then?" He didn't reply for long minutes, time that Cam took to examine him: yes, he was definitely in love. Foolishly, stupidly in love. She had suspected that the moment he had told her, with such a firm tone of voice that held no doubt that if she tried to fire the scientist he was with Bones, no matter what. "Be a grown boy, Seeley, and say that you are".

"I can't…" he finally murmured under his breath. "You saw what happened when you and I were together. I almost had you killed…"

"Oh, boy… Is that what's stopping you?" the woman said. She smiled and shook her head: Brennan was so lucky to have someone like Booth drooling for her, someone that always put her well being first, even over his feelings.

"It was not an easy thing, Camille! You almost died! I felt so guilty about it!"

"But I didn't die!"

"But it was because you were so close to me!" he raised his voice enough to silence her. "Imagine what could happen if Bones…" he stopped mid-sentence and just held the woman's eyes for a moment. He knew he had to speak to someone, and perhaps she was his best choice. "We would be very vulnerable…"

"You're so concerned about her safety…"

"She's my responsibility! When I first asked Cullen to assign her to me, I promised I would always keep an eye on her!" he argued.

"She's a grown woman…"

"But I've put her in danger so many times!" his eyes showed a clear challenge. "And if one day I'm not able to protect her…" he shook his head and lowered his head. Then, before he continued, he looked up to meet Cam's eyes again. "If I worry so much with her being just my partner, do you think I could handle it if we… were…?"

"…together?" Cam finished. He nodded. "Seeley… you two are already together… You may still call her your partner, but your heart is long attached to her…" she sipped at the hot beverage, its perfume relaxing her mind enough to play cupid for her ex boyfriend and the woman who had stolen his heart.

"I can no longer see things clearly, Cam…" Booth sighed heavily. "My head feels clouded… On one side I want to always protect her, on the other, she never misses a chance to remember me she can take care of herself… I want her to need me, but one of the things I like the most of her is that she is so independent… She drives me totally crazy, but I also enjoy getting on her nerves and still winning her playful smile… We bicker about everything, but deep inside I don't care to be always corrected and lose every argument I engage in it it's with her… I told her once: we all are a team, Angela, Hodgins, Zach and you, but she and I are the center…"

"This time it really hit you, right, Seeley? Love knocked at your door and it really knocked you down…" Cam was pretty amused with the situation. "But you must prepare yourself to confess your feelings soon, before it's too late…"

"Too late?" he flinched.

"What about Sully? Wasn't he supposed to be sailing for one year? He left about a year ago, didn't he?"

Booth moved in his chair uncomfortably. "How do you know?" he asked crossing his arms.

"Did anyone in the lab not see her kissing him? It was not a secret, nor did she try to keep it hidden either… I'm almost sure she did that mostly for you to see her with him, but you didn't pay attention… And she did talk to me about the possibility of taking a sabbatical to go with him, that's why I know." Cam knew she had gotten him thinking just by the look on his face. "What would you do if Sully came back?"

He turned to see her immediately, fear evident in his eyes. "I told her to go with him… if he made her happy…"

"You are going to lose her if you don't fight…" Cam told him seriously. "It's obvious you want her, Booth! We all have seen it, we all know you two are meant to together, but you are the ones who have to decide it! I'll only tell you one more thing: you are going to lose her if you never speak".

"Gee, thanks for the good wishes…" the agent finally said. "Thank God I was not looking for a comforting shoulder…"

"I've told you before that: do you want some comfort? Then don't come to look for such a good friend like me, Seeley, 'cause I will always tell you the truth," she sentenced drinking the remaining tea in her cup.

"Let's go back to the lab…" the agent said calling Syd for the account and for the takeover he had in mind for his and Bones' dinner that night.


End file.
